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Smallholder farmers in South and East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America are responsible for more than 70% of the food calories produced in these regions, new research shows. A study published by researchers at the University of Minnesota in the journal Environmental Research Letters provides comprehensive information about the number, location and distribution of small farms worldwide. It also includes a map which illustrates the distribution of small, medium and large farms across most world regions. The scientist said that despite the recent spotlight on small farms and increasing consensus on their importance, detailed information on location and size of smallholder farms is virtually absent. “This map is a first step toward a better understanding of where and how smallholder farming can be sustainable for both landscapes and livelihoods,” said Leah Samberg, lead author of the study and scientist with the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment. The researchers said that smallholders and family farms are crucial to feeding the planet and they highlighted that successful policies aimed at alleviating poverty, boosting food security and protecting biodiversity and natural resources depend on the inclusion and participation of small farmers. The researchers therefore hope that the map will fill this knowledge gap and help implement effective agricultural, development, and land use policies. “Combining both agriculture and household survey data creates a map that is a critical piece of the puzzle for targeting the billions of dollars invested in programs to improve people’s lives,” said Paul West, one of the co-authors. The scientists used census data from millions of households in dozens of countries to identify farming households and average farm sizes across much of the world. They identified 918 places in 83 countries in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America where there are fewer than 5 hectares of agricultural land per farming household. These smallholder hotspots are home to more than 380 million farming households, make up roughly 30% of the agricultural land are key sources of many important agricultural commodities. Within the 83 countries studied, units with a mean agricultural area of five hectares or less account for more than half of the production by mass of eight staple crops: rice, groundnut, cassava, millet, wheat, potato, maize, barley, and rye. According to the authors this illustrates the specific importance of smallholder production for food security. Smallholders in the 83 countries covered by the study in the three regions were responsible for more than 70% of the food calories produced in these regions, and produced 55% of the food calories produced globally. The calories produced by small farms with less than five hectares varied between regions. In Asia, they accounted for 90% of food calories in the region while smallholder units produce half of food calories in sub-Saharan Africa. This study was only a first effort to make use of the rich datasets, said lead author Leah Samberg: “We envision numerous future applications of this farm size product in combination with other variables related to food security, natural resource use and human well-being that will further increase our understanding of the dynamics of small farms and the livelihoods of those who depend on them.” (ab)

The fight against poverty, hunger and malnutrition can only be won if rural women and girls, especially in the agricultural sector, have equal opportunities than men. This was the message of hunger experts at a high-level event held at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome in December. “It is important that rural women have the appropriate conditions to develop their capacities and carry out their activities. This includes adequate and equal access to financial resources, services and opportunities,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, who described women as the backbone of agriculture. According to FAO figures, 45% of the agricultural labour force in developing countries are women, with that figure rising to 60 percent in parts of Africa and Asia. “Evidence shows that when women have opportunities, the yields on their farms increase, natural resources are better managed, nutrition is improved, and livelihoods are more secure,” da Silva added. This was confirmed by Neven Mimica, the EU commissioner for International Cooperation and Development, who also spoke at the event: “We know that agricultural yields would rise by almost a third if women had the same access to resources as men. As a result, there would be up to 150 million fewer hungry people in the world.” In addition, children also have significantly better prospects for the future when their mothers are healthy, wealthy and educated, he stressed, especially during the first 1,000 days of a child’s life. However, 60 percent of chronically hungry people on the planet are women or girls. Women across all world regions are less likely than men to own or control land, and their plots often are of poorer quality. FAO estimates that less than 20% of the world’s landholders are women. “All of this must change,” said da Silva, “Achieving gender equality and empowering women is not only the right thing to do. It is a crucial ingredient in the fight against extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition.” The speakers therefore highlighted the key role rural women play in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Gender equality and women’s empowerment is an important theme of the Agenda 2030, adopted by world leaders in September 2015. This is not only addressed in the stand-alone goal 5, that wants to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, but gender equality needs to be mainstreamed across all 17 SDGs. Neven Mimica underscored the importance of gender equality especially for Goal 2 on eliminating hunger and malnutrition worldwide. “If we are serious about putting an end to poverty and hunger once and for all, then we all need to step up our support for rural women. As an investment in families, in our communities, in our wider societies, and in our planet's future,” the EU Commissioner argued. (ab)

A new report backed by European Parliament scientists underscores the benefits of organic food and farming for human health. The study, carried out by the European Parliamentary Research Service, looked at the existing scientific evidence regarding the impact of organic food on human health and the potential contribution of organic management practices to the development of healthy food systems. The scientists concluded that eating organic food has potential beneficial effects on human health, ranging from a decreased risk of allergic diseases to lower dietary exposure to pesticides. But they also point out that few studies have directly addressed the effect of organic food on human health and that more data from well-designed long-term studies is needed. With regard to pesticides, they concluded that consumers of organic food have a reduced risk of exposure. “Epidemiological studies point to the negative effects of certain insecticides on children’s cognitive development at current levels of exposure. Such risks can be minimised with organic food, especially during pregnancy and in infancy.” The report continues: “Organic agriculture supplies food with low pesticide residues, and may be instrumental in conventional agriculture’s transition towards integrated pest management by providing a large-scale laboratory for non-chemical plant protection.”

According to the researchers, some studies indicate that organic food may reduce the risk of allergies in children, adult overweight/obesity and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but they also admit that it is currently not possible to determine whether organic food plays the decisive role since consumers of organic food tend to have healthier diets overall. This leads to methodological difficulties in separating the potential effect of organic food preference from the effect of other lifestyle factors. With regard to crop composition, the study said that vitamins and minerals are found in similar concentrations in both organic and conventional crops. But the scientists found indications that organic crops have a lower cadmium content due to differences in fertiliser usage and soil organic matter, an issue that is highly relevant to human health. In addition, organic milk, and probably also meat, have a higher content of omega-3 fatty acids compared to conventional products. The authors also mention a large number of studies which suggest an increased content of phenolic compounds found in organic crops. Another benefit of organic agriculture highlighted in the study is the reduced risk of antibiotic resistance in farm animals: “The prevalent use of antibiotics in conventional animal production is a key driver of antibiotic resistance. The prevention of animal disease and more restrictive use of antibiotics, as practiced in organic production, could minimise this risk, with potentially considerable benefits for public health”, the study concluded. Soil Association, the UK’s leading food and farming charity, welcomed the report as a “Christmas present for organic farmers and everyone who eats organic food”. Peter Melchett, Soil Association’s policy director, said that “a key reason that people buy organic food sales is that they feel it is better for them and their family - that is why more than half the baby food sold in the UK is organic. This new, independent, scientific review confirms people are right,” he added. (ab)

Urbanization is eating up the world’s most fertile farmland, threatening sustainability goals and livelihoods of small-scale farmers in the Global South, new research shows. According to a study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS), some 300,000 square kilometers of particularly fertile cropland will be lost by the year 2030 due to urban sprawl. This corresponds to an area almost the size of Germany and a possible loss of 3–4% of worldwide crop production in the year 2000. The scientists from the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) say this area could feed more than 300 million people for an entire year with 2,500 calories per day. The researchers combined projections on urban area expansion from Yale University with land-use data from the University of Minnesota and the University of British Columbia on global croplands and crop yields. Their results show that urban expansion will result in a 1.8–2.4% loss of global croplands by 2030, with substantial regional disparities. About 80% of global cropland loss from urban expansion will occur in Asia and Africa. Africa has the highest urbanization rates, whereas Asia has the highest absolute growth of urban dwellers. China alone will account for one-fourth of total global cropland loss, amounting to almost 80,000 km². According to the authors, urban expansion in China is taking place in the country’s most productive farmland and over large areas and could therefore pose a threat to domestic crop production. “Hotspots of cropland loss tend to be river valleys and deltas, such as the Yangtze River Delta near Shanghai or the Pearl River Delta near Hong Kong,” said lead author Bren d’Amour. He predicts that land-use conflict between urbanization and food production will differ from region to region. “A lot depends on the urbanization dynamics of the individual countries. In India, for example, the urbanization process is not as fast as in China and smaller in overall scale.”

African countries will experience the highest percentage loss of cropland. Among the hotspots are Nigeria, Burundi and Rwanda, countries that are already severely affected by hunger and food shortage. Urbanization will also eat away large parts of Egypt’s fertile farmlands. By 2030, the country could lose about one-third of its cropland. The study warns that the world’s most fertile soils will be affected since urban sprawl is predicted to take place on cropland that is 1.77 times more productive than the global average. The authors say that “this dynamic adds pressure to potentially strained future food systems and threatens livelihoods in vulnerable regions”. Beyond the direct loss of cropland, the growth of megaurban regions has other important implications for food systems, especially for smallholder farmers, they argue. Large urban areas have seen a growth in supermarkets replacing locally owned or small-scale food retail stores. This has implications for traditional retailers, small producers, traditional food brokers, and the entire supply chain, the authors warn, as once decentralized systems of food procurement will shift to a more centralized system focused on large distribution centers. They urge governments to take action to protect small-scale producers and traditional retailers in order to secure livelihoods in the agrarian economies of the Global South. “Urban planners can contribute to preventing small farmers from losing their livelihoods. Spatially efficient urbanization could help to retain the existing agricultural system while continuing to provide small farmers with access to the urban food market,” said co-author Felix Creutzig. (ab)

A major UN conference has agreed to step up efforts to integrate the protection of biodiversity across all sectors, including agriculture. At the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), which ended on 17 December in Mexico, ministers from around the world adopted the Cancún Declaration. The six-page document recognises the need to mainstream the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity in the agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism sectors as a key action to achieve sustainable development, including ensuring food security and addressing climate change. In the text, countries pledge to “ensure that sectoral and cross-sectoral policies, plans and programmes, as well as legal and administrative measures and budgets established by governments, integrate in a structured and coherent manner actions for the conservation, sustainable use, management, and restoration of biological diversity and ecosystems.” They also committed to support sustainable production and consumption and to phase out incentives harmful to biodiversity.

The document stresses the need to make agriculture more sustainable to achieve biodiversity targets. “This is a turning point,” said Maria Helena Semedo, FAO Deputy Director-General. “The agriculture sectors and biodiversity have often been regarded as separate and even conflicting concerns, yet they are inextricably connected. Agriculture is by nature a major user of biodiversity, but it also has the potential to contribute to its protection,” she added. One measure laid down in the document is the conservation and cultivation of native varieties, as well as farmers’ landraces, locally adapted breeds and underutilized species, including those threatened by production intensification. In addition, countries committed to measures to promote diversified agro-ecological systems and the designation of agricultural biodiversity conservation sites. Another goal are sustainable consumption and production patterns, including more diversified diets based on a broader range of biodiversity. While UN representatives seemed to be satisfied with the results of the conference, some NGOs were disappointed with the outcome. Friends of the Earth International said the results do not rise up to the challenge of protecting biodiversity as they do not lead to the necessary system change to curb the accelerated loss of biodiversity. “It is a good idea to make sure all sectors take biodiversity into account when making decisions that can impact biodiversity. But unfortunately, the final decisions fail to impose action that would force the before mentioned sectors to act within planetary boundaries,” the organisation said in a statement. With regard to one goal mentioned in the declaration, the effective management and conservation of pollinators, several countries already announced the creation of a “coalition of the willing”. The “Promote Pollinators” coalition promised to take action to protect pollinators and their habitats by developing and implementing national pollinator strategies, sharing knowledge on new approaches and to developing research on pollinator conservation. (ab)

Under a programme called Grow, the world’s largest agribusiness corporations are taking control of food and farming in the Global South, warns a new report released on December 15 by the non-profit organisation GRAIN. According to the report “Grow-ing disaster: the Fortune 500 goes farming”, some of the biggest food and agribusiness companies such as Nestlé, PepsiCo, and Monsanto are promoting public-private partnerships within the framework of the Grow programme, which focuses on Latin America, Africa and Asia – the main growth markets for the global food industry. They are promising ”market-based solutions” to poverty, food insecurity and climate change, with the aim of supporting small farmers. In reality, however, those food companies are fostering close ties with governments in order to increase their control over markets and supply chains. The programme’s focus is on a few high-value commodities, for example potatoes, maize, coffee and palm oil, showing that the real objective of the Grow initiative is to expand the production of these cash crops to benefit just a handful of companies, most of which are based in the US and Europe. The report warns that the programme will have negative impacts on local communities, biodiversity, nutrition and the climate.

Grow is part of the New Vision for Agriculture, an initiative of the World Economic Forum (WEF) that was launched in 2009 and is led by 31 of the WEF's “partner” companies involved in the food business, whether in agriculture, food processing or retail. GRAIN criticises that The New Vision for Agriculture is “a vague document that calls for market-based approaches to increase global food production and ensure environmental sustainability. Its main emphasis is on contract farming linking small farmers to multinational companies or corporate plantations. Grow Asia is the Southeast Asian leg of a global initiative and is located within the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and its Food Security Framework. One of Grow Asia’s projects in Vietnam is a Monsanto and Syngenta-led project to assist the Ministry of Agriculture in converting 668,000 ha from traditional rice production for food to hybrid maize production for animal feed within five years. GRAIN reports that the conversion scheme has already had dramatic consequences for the Xinh Mun people who live in this region. Over the past several years, many of them were pushed into planting maize instead of their traditional upland rice by offering them seeds and fertilisers, as well as household staples such as rice and salt in exchange for signing contracts to grow maize. The report says the farmers didn’t realise that they would have to repay the cost of the seeds at twice the price at harvest time. Almost all village households ended up in debt and many farmers have lost their land in an effort to repay debts. Another project in Vietnam’s Lam Dong province promotes contract potato production linking small farmers with US-based food giant PepsiCo. The company needs a particular potato variety for its Lay’s brand of chips and aims at building up a more affordable local supply chain. In Latin America, the New Vision's companies have their sights set on the Pacific Alliance (composed of Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru) but it has so far been limited to a national programme in Mexico. In Africa, the Grow programme is closely intertwined with the infamous New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa. The report describes a project in Ghana, where local people have been severely affected by the loss of land for food production and the decline in access to fish from the project's use of their water sources. For corporations, Grow offers a win-win scenario, the report concludes, but there is no future for small farmers or food traders and processors in this vision. (ab)

Progress towards ending hunger in Asia and the Pacific has slowed down in recent years, according to a new study published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). If the fight against hunger and malnutrition is not picking up momentum, most countries of the region will not meet the UN’s second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of zero hunger by 2030. With some 490 million people, the Asia-Pacific region is home to more than 60% of the world’s hungry people. 12% of the region’s population is undernourished with most of them living in South Asia. Although the prevalence of undernourishment in the Asia Pacific region dropped by half from 24.3% in 1990, progress has slowed down in the last five years compared to the two decades before, the report said. With recent reduction rate, only two countries would reach the target of eliminating hunger by 2030 and even with their best historical rates only nine countries would meet the zero hunger goal. “The analysis in this report is an eye-opener and a wake-up call to all of us here in Asia and the Pacific,” said Kundhavi Kadiresan, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative. “To some, the year 2030 may still seem far away, but it’s only 14 years from now and we still have nearly half-a-billion hungry people in this region.”

The report also notes that nearly one in three children in the region are suffering from stunting. “Many countries in the region face the challenge of a triple burden of malnutrition whereby an inadequate intake of calories, micronutrient deficiencies and obesity prevail simultaneously.” Obesity has been increasing rapidly in parts of the region. While figures differ country to country, the regional rate of obesity has been increasing by more than 4% annually. The study highlights that diets in Asia and the Pacific are undergoing rapid transition as countries and their inhabitants are growing richer. According to FAO, per capita rice consumption has declined and consumption of livestock products, fish, fruits and vegetables has grown rapidly. “The most striking example of this is the rapid take up of dairy products across the region,” said Kadiresan. This presents a tremendous opportunity to improve nutrition, she said, but policy-makers also need to ensure that the region’s small-holder dairy farmers benefit from this trend. They need fair access to markets and support that enables them to compete in the marketplace. The report says that changes in diets also require that foods other than rice receive more investments in agricultural research and more policy attention. “Most countries in this region are spending too little on agricultural research,” said Kadiresan. “So in order to meet both the zero hunger goal and ensure everyone is well nourished in Asia-Pacific by 2030, we will, collectively, need to put our money where our mouths are to ensure we can meet these twin challenges,” she added. (ab)

Global methane emissions from agriculture and other sources have increased dramatically in recent years, threatening efforts to combat climate change, new research shows. A team of international scientists warns that atmospheric methane concentrations have jumped rapidly since 2007 after a period of relative stagnation in the early 2000s. “Unlike CO2, atmospheric methane concentrations are rising faster than at any time in the past two decades and, since 2014, are now approaching the most greenhouse-gas-intensive scenarios,” they write in the journal Environmental Research Letters on December 12. This is alarming since methane’s warming potential is about 28 times greater on a 100-year horizon than that of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas. „Keeping global warming below 2 °C is already a challenging target, with most of the attention placed primarily on CO2 emissions,” the paper reads. “Such a target will become increasingly difficult if reductions in methane emissions are not also addressed strongly and rapidly.“

According to the scientists, around 60% of all methane emissions globally are human-induced, while the rest stems from wetlands and other natural sources. The analysis suggests that agriculture is mainly to blame for the recent rapid rise in global methane concentrations - with smaller contributions from fossil fuel use and possibly wetlands. Livestock production and agriculture account for nearly two-thirds of human-induced methane emissions. Cattle emit methane through bodily functions and manure, while rice fields emit methane when being flooded. “The fossil fuel industry has received most of the attention in recent years. Agricultural emissions need similar scrutiny,” said Rob Jackson, chair of Stanford’s Earth System Science Department and co-author of the paper. Although methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than CO2, it also “presents the best opportunity to slow climate change quickly,” said Jackson because it is much more short-lived in the atmosphere than CO2. This means that actions taken to reduce emissions will show rapid results, the researchers said. One possible solution for agriculture is to change the way rice is cultivated by reducing the flooding of paddy fields. „Modification of rice agriculture practices (e.g., semi-inundated paddies, dry cultivation) is well tested and promising, assuming yield and quality of the staple food for more than 3 billion people can be guaranteed“, the authors write. Other strategies include promoting less meat-intensive diets and modifying ruminants’ diet to limit methane emissions from intestinal processes. Measures in other areas could be covering landfills to capture methane emissions. According to the study, such mitigation policies in the agriculture and waste sectors are key to reducing methane emissions in most of the high emitting regions. “We still need to cut carbon dioxide emissions, but cutting methane provides complementary benefits for climate, economies and human health,” Jackson added. (ab)

Farmland in Europe has become increasingly concentrated in the hands of fewer large farms while the number of small farms is declining at an alarming rate. A new report published by Transnational Institute, an international research and advocacy institute based in the Netherlands, found that land in the EU is more unevenly distributed than wealth. According to data from Eurostat, large farms defined as agricultural holdings of 100 hectares and more, made up only 3.1% of all European farms in 2013. However, these farms controlled 52% of the total utilised agricultural area in the EU. At the same time, small farms with less than 10 hectares, or three quarters of all farms in the EU, only controlled 11% of farmland. This land inequality translates into a Gini co-efficient of 0.82, putting Europe on par with countries that are infamous for their unequal land distribution such as Brazil, Colombia and the Philippines. Land concentration and farmland grabbing is a particular problem in Eastern Europe. In Bulgaria, Czech Republic and Slovakia, more than 80% of the total utilised agricultural area is in the hands of large holdings with more than 100 hectares. “This process of land concentration and land inequality has particularly affected Europe’s small farms,“ writes Sylvia Kay, the author of the report. Between 2003 and 2013, the number of holdings of less than 10 hectares dropped by a third. The land controlled by small farms declined by a quarter while the total utilised agricultural area occupied by large farms in the EU grew by 15% over the same period. Between 1990 and 2013, the number of small farms in Germany decreased by 79%. The figure was 77% for Slovakia, 68% for both Italy and the Czech Republic and 56% for France. According to the author, land grabbing is also becoming a problem in Europe. Relatively low land prices in Eastern European Member States have been a major incentive for investors to acquire farmland in these countries and establish large holdings. One example given in the report is the Lebanese owned Maria Group, which holds 65,000 hectares of land in Romania. It als owns a large slaughterhouse and a port to export meat and cereals, largely to the Middle East and East Africa.

“If left unchecked, there is a danger that land grabbing and land concentration, particularly when reinforced by other processes and policy biases, will block the entry into farming of young and aspiring farmers, while leading to the further exit of Europe’s small farmers,“ warns Kay. This would have a negative impact on European food security, employment and biodiversity since the decline of small-scale farming in Europe would also mean that the multiple benefits of this type of farming system will disappear. “Small-scale farmers form the backbone of European agriculture,“ argues Kay. “They are strengthening food security by producing healthy and plentiful food of known provenance; they support food sovereignty by building up local markets and shorter producer-to-consumer food chains (…), they are protecting the environment and local biodiversity by practising a form of non-conventional, diversified agriculture (i.e. with fewer chemical inputs and based on natural cycles of regeneration); and they bring dynamism to rural areas by generating employment and sustaining rural community life based on local food cultures and traditions.“ (ab)

Soil and pulses play a key role in feeding the world, improving soil health and combating climate change, according to a new report published by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on World Soil Day. This year, the focus of World Soil Day is on the reciprocal relationship between soils and pulses. “Soils and pulses embody a unique symbiosis that protects the environment, enhances productivity, contributes to adapting to climate change and provides fundamental nutrients to the soil and subsequent crops,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva on December 5. The report highlights how pulses such as lentils, dry beans and chickpeas benefit soil health and improve growing conditions for other plants. FAO says that cereals grown after pulses yield 1.5 tonnes more per hectare than those not preceded by pulses. To generate comparable yields, up to 100 kilograms of nitrogen fertilizer would need to be applied. The report describes pulses as “architects of soil health”. According to the authors, pulses “are responsible for the biological fixation of atmospheric nitrogen and for the solubilisation of phosphate ions from bound forms such as calcium and iron phosphates to make these nutrients available to plants.” Besides their role in the nitrogen and phosphorous cycles, the authors add, “pulses also contribute to increasing soil organic matter, improving soil structure and maintaining soil biodiversity, leading to overall increased soil health.”

In addition, pulses support water filtration, preserve biodiversity, sequester more carbon and increase resilience to a changing climate. The report also discusses the role of pulses in restoring degraded soils and contributing to sustainable soil management. Pressures on soil resources are reaching critical limits: 33 percent of the world’s soils are already degraded due to acidification, salinization, erosion and urbanization, threatening the life-supporting ecosystem services they provide. FAO warns that the world is currently losing soil 10 to 20 times faster than it is replenishing it, a trend pulses can help offset. The report cites a case study in India which showed how the cultivation of pigeon peas reduced soil runoff and erosion by up to 59 percent. In his message on World Soil Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pointed out that sustainable soil management will also advance progress on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly when it comes to addressing hunger, food insecurity, malnutrition and rural incomes, which is the aim of the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). “Pulses can boost soil health while supporting healthier and nutritious diets,” he said. Pulses have a high protein content and can improve the diets of the poorest. But they are also are a significant source of minerals, including iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorous and zinc. (ab)